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Updated: May 16, 2026

Detecting Pre-Stimulus Source-Level Effects on Object Perception with Magnetoencephalography
Published on: July 26, 2019
Event-related potential evidence of accessing gender stereotypes to aid source monitoring
P Andrew Leynes1, Jarret T Crawford, Anne M Radebaugh
1The College of New Jersey, Department of Psychology, Ewing, NJ 08628, United States. leynes@tcnj.edu
Abstract:
Source memory for the speaker's voice (male or female) was investigated when semantic knowledge (gender stereotypes) could and could not inform the episodic source judgment while event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. Source accuracy was greater and response times were faster when stereotypes could predict the speaker's voice at test. Recollection supported source judgments in both conditions as indicated by significant parietal "old/new" ERP effects (500-800ms). Prototypical late ERP effects (the right frontal "old/new" effect and the late posterior negativity, LPN) were evident when source judgment was based solely on episodic memory. However, these two late ERP effects were diminished and a novel, frontal-negative ERP with left-central topography was observed when stereotypes aided source judgments. This pattern of ERP activity likely reflects activation of left frontal or left temporal lobes when semantic knowledge, in the form of a gender stereotype, is accessed to inform the episodic source judgment.
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